Last year we reported that Ron Howard was to helm "Mena," a film that will focus on the notorious Mena, Ark. drug smuggler Barry Seal, best known for his role in importing billions of dollars worth of cocaine into the U.S. on behalf of Colombian drug lords (for which he earned between $60 and $100 million dollars, according to his own testimony). Now, Deadline Hollywood reports that Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman ("The Bourne Identity," "Edge of Tomorrow") are "in talks" to make the film, based on a script by Gary Spinelli.

The story is a complicated one, variously involving the C.I.A. and George H.W. Bush and the Nicaraguan Revolution, etc. Mara Leveritt has written about Seal for the Times on a number of occasions.